Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 33 - August 2010

I hate the summer time.

There are a lot of reasons for my ever-growing disdain for this time of year. It's hot. It's sticky. The sun is always out and burning my fair, fair skin. (Like cream, some would say.) Mostly, however, I hate the summer because I let myself get really busy, and, despite my best intentions, I let my priorities get all out of whack.

Thus, here I sit after three months of silence. There has been no substantive addition to my music library, and I have little doubt you have been losing sleep over what haphazard musings have been bouncing around my brain.

Inexcusable, I know. Please forgive me.

Back in April, Katie and I moved in to a new place overlooking Rock Creek Park, and I have spent most of the ensuing months worrying over the window boxes I installed on our balcony. There isn't really enough growing in the window boxes to demand that much attention, but you may have learned by now that I have a fairly obsessive personality. In the right-hand window box, there's a gerber daisy that was the first housewarming gift we received that didn't contain alcohol, and there are a few pansies (I think) I grew from seeds that I somehow inherited at work. None of them are flowering at the moment, but both are showing signs of thriving, despite the brutal heat we have seen here in the past month. In the other window box, there is a basil plant that leads me to believe there may be some source of radiation nearby: it's huge, and the fragrance it casts across the balcony is intoxicating.

This morning, I sat on that very balcony next to those very window boxes drinking my morning coffee (made with the help of a new coffee grinder from my big brother), and I realized my silence of the last few months subsumed the collection of a quarter's worth of SIOH lists.

Sorry about that.

Title - Artist

My Girls - Animal Collective
Pool Party - Aquabats
Mardy Bum - Arctic Monkey
You Never Give Me Your Money - The Beatles
Farewell Ride - Beck
Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyonce
One Time - Justin Bieber
Tighten Up - Black Keys
California Stars - Billy Bragg
Pussy - Brazilian Girls
Road to Joy - Bright Eyes
Hey Ma - Cam'Ron
Traffic - Ben Cyllus
Animal Jam - Diego, Dora and friends
Tom Ames' Prayer - Steve Earle
Rock On - David Essex
Second Balcony Jump - Dexter Gordon
Stylo - Gorillaz
Ripple - Grateful Dead
Foreground - Grizzly Bear
You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates
Sparky Marcus - James William Hindle
Bulletproof - La Roux
Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem
Get Drunk and Go Home - The Mighty Regis
Fire It Up - Modest Mouse
Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National
Party and Bullshit in the USA - Notrious BIG and Miley Cyrus
Consequence - The Notwist
California Gurls - Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
Havalina - Pixies
Paper - Rafter
Hello - Lionel Richie
Soldier of Love - Sade
Fire With Fire - Scissor Sisters
Stars and Stripes Forever - John Philip Sousa
For You - The Sugar Twins
Theme from Cheers - Titus Andronicus
Johnsburg, Illinois - Tom Waits
Sangria Wine - Jerry Jeff Walker
Impossible Germany - Wilco
Mister Softee jingle
Theme from Fireman Sam

Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 32 - April 2010

I talked myself in to going down to the Lincoln Memorial on Easter morning for the annual sunrise service. If you ever get the chance to watch the sun rise from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I strongly suggest you take advantage of it. I would also suggest, however, that doing it any other day of the year would probably be more enjoyable, unless, of course, you prefer to be part of a crowd prone to celebrating leaden rhetoric and the evils of intellectualism.

That aside, the adventure was hardly a loss: dragging my ass out of bed in time to get down to the Mall before sunrise resulted in being down there early enough to take a stroll around the Tidal Basin before its paths were completely choked by throngs of people looking at DC's famous cherry blossoms. Katie and I took a leisurely stroll under the cherry trees, got just enough crowd-dodging in to fill our quota, and got back up to our neighborhood brunch spot just in time for them to open the doors.

The cherry blossoms are world-renowned for good reason. They are beautiful, and, even though I can generally only stomach the crowds every other year or so, I am always surprised to find seeing them takes my breath away. What I really like about the cherry blossoms, however, is their appearance signals the imminent onset of one of my three favorite things to do in DC: walking through the azalea collection at the National Arboretum at the height of their bloom season. The azaleas usually come out a week or two after the cherry blossoms, and, while the cherry blossoms are breathtaking, the azaleas are dumbfounding, flabbergasting, thunderstriking, agogging. I grant that my fascination with azaleas may be a peculiar outgrowth of my childhood in Savannah, where azaleas figure prominently in the civic landscape, but the array of colors and the sheer volume of blooms on the 10,000 azalea shrubs at the Arboretum during the two weeks or so when they're out is a sight to see even if you have no childhood memories to pluck with them.

I went out to check on them this morning, and the early arrivals are already here. The warm weather and rain we've seen this past week should be pushing them almost all the way out in the next week or two, although the Arboretum itself is claiming the 23rd and 24th as the peak season; however, whether you take my word or theirs, like sunrise in Lincoln's lap, if you get the opportunity to go out to the Arboretum to see the azaleas in bloom, I strongly encourage you to take advantage of it.


Title - Artist

It's the Hard-Knock Life - Annie and the Orphans
Across the Universe - The Beatles
You Can Leave Your Hat On - Joe Cocker
Why Should You Come When I Call? - Counting Crows
Don't Stop the Music - Jamie Cullum
Cover of the Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook
Cold Beverage - G Love and Special Sauce
Hands in the Air - Girl Talk
Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters - Elton John
The Front Porch Song - Robert Earl Keen, Jr.
Need You Know - Lady Antebellum
Boys Boys Boys - Lady Gaga
California Dreaming - The Mamas and the Papas
Pavlov's Bell - Aimee Mann
Imagine One Day (so far away) - Matisyahu vs. John Lennon vs. Blink 182 vs. Bob Marley vs. Gentleman
Dear God - Monsters of Folk
Sometimes It's Our Mistakes That Make for the Greatest Ideas - Norma Jean
Fear the Boom and Bust - John Papola and Russ Roberts
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
Underwater - Tegan and Sara
Ukelele Lady - Traditional
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
Piece of Crap - Neil Young
Dancing With the Stars theme
Give Me Back That Filet o' Fish

Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 31 - March 2010

There is a profound drama unfolding on the streets of Our Nation's Capital these days. As you are probably aware, due to the endless bitching and bellyaching of thousands upon thousands of DC residents like me, we have gotten an awful lot of snow this winter. I don't intend to spend much space here adding to the bitching and bellyaching to which I have already subjected you, but I will take just a moment to acknowledge, as a man who spent the longest winter of his life a mile high in the Montana Rockies, we've had some no-bullshit snowfall. Forget for a moment there's no real infrastructure here to deal with even a moderate snowfall; our snowfall has been decidedly immoderate.


I am happy to report, however, that there are signs of melt all around me. Once the city started to gather its wits after the most recent storm - I still giggle a little when everyone starts throwing around the term "snow event" - we collectively put a lot of effort into taking the snow from wherever it had inconveniently fallen, such as on the front walk where it blocked my pedestrian path or in the back alley where it blocked my vehicular path, and started piling it as high as possible in slightly less inconvenient places. As you can imagine, the piles I created were somewhat limited in size by the reach of my shovel and outstretched arm. There were some crazy bastards with bulldozers and front-end loaders and other pieces of industrial equipment that would strike my nephews agog with wonder who did not face the same limitations. Consequently, every corner or so became the site of a pile of snow eight or ten feet high. On the far side of some of the parking lots downtown, they piled snow nearly 25 feet high.


When the piles first appeared, I don't know that I had ever before felt such a strong affinity for a pile of anything before. It took them several days to show up, but their appearance meant the city's vital systems were starting to pump again. I could go places other than my house with a better than even shot at getting there and back without breaking my neck or busting my ass on hard pack and ice. I don't think I would go so far as to say they were gleaming and pristine in their utilitarian edificiary, but they were beautiful.


The past couple of weeks have not been kind to these harbingers of motility. It stands to reason that, in the process of scraping snow off of the street and sidewalk, one is likely to simultaneously scrape everything else along with it. You know what happens to a pile like that when the temperature starts spending some time in the 40s and 50s? The snow melts and, like a huge, twisted advent calendar, the pile slowly reveals its hidden treasures. Thus, with each passing day, I go by shorter and wetter piles of mysterious collections of urban detritus, and I can't stop myself from taking good, long looks to see what new stuff has surfaced since my last visit.


It turns out what appears in the eye and in the mind as a pile of snow is, in fact, a pile of snow and dirt and shoes and beer bottles and CD cases and juice boxes and plastic bags and dogshit.


I bet you if you tried to sell advent calendars with that stuff in them, you wouldn't do too well.


Title - Artist

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
I've Got a Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
The Cowboy Mambo (Hey Lookit Me Now) - David Byrne
Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant
Slutty Girls in Slutty Costumes, a Tribute - cracked.com
Please Don't Stop the Music - Jamie Cullum
Party in the USA - Miley Cyrus
Pressing On - Bob Dylan
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
Modern Drift - Efterklang
Against All Odds - Genesis
Hey Na Na - Katie Herzig
Ali in the Jungle - The Hours
Angel - Iguanas
Who Did You Think I Was - John Mayer Trio
Don't Get My Bad Romance Wrong? - Marc Johnce
Heartbeat - Don Johnson
Boy Lilikoi - Jónsi
Go Do - Jónsi
Tik Tok - Ke$ha
Love is My Disease - Alicia Keys
The Alphabet - Patti Labelle
Speechless - Lady Gaga
Bed Rock - Lil' Wayne
Goin' Back to Cali - LL Cool J
Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer
Stupid - Sarah McLachlan
Pressure Time - Mighty Mike
I'd Rather Fuck You - NWA
Kandi - One eskimO
1901 - Phoenix
Where is my Mind? - Pixies
Summertime - Red Molly
Trunk Fulla Amps - SeLF
The People in Your Neighborhood - Sesame Street
Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
Sing - Travis
Horchata - Vampire Weekend
The Things That I Used to Do (Live at Carnegie Hall) - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead - XTC
My Little Pony theme
O Canada
Team Umizoomi Theme
When the Saints Go Marching In

Stuck in Our Heads - Vol. 30 - January 2010

The new year is upon us, and, as you can see, I have been trying to be a little more circumspect, a little more deliberate in 2010. I am trying to find ways to put a little more effort and a little more time into the things I have generally taken for granted.

I have discussed before in this space the ebb and flow of my desk at home. While I am not exactly proud, I am comforted by the fact that the tendencies described therein continue. Unlike Madonna or the Executive Branch, I am not one to fundamentally reinvent myself. I'm a pretty stable guy, and, for better or for worse, you will probably get what you expect from me.

And, that is why I found myself earlier this month with four Waffle House coffee cups (and I mean the old-school kind with anemic handles and the brown scrollwork around the lip, not the new-school classic-diner-style with the updated logo, functional heft, and reasonable non-finger-burning properties) full of coins sitting on my desk. That's right. Four cups of change.

Four cups of change is surprisingly heavy. I guess it's not really surprising, what with coins being made of metals and all, but when you think of coins, as I do, as something that you carry around in your pocket all day, lifting that many of them at one time makes my belt tired.

(I should note that none of the following paragraph is based on any respectable research at all. That will not, however, prevent me from declaring it as though it is both scientifically and religiously unassailable.) A couple of years ago, there was a DC-area bank that spent a lot of money airing commercials crowing about their coin-counting machines. You could walk right in and dump your change in to one of their machines. The machine would count and sort your coins. It would then print you a ticket with your total on it, and you could take the ticket to a teller who would then give you that total amount in the kind that folds. The commercials made a big deal out of the fact that you could dump your change in to the machine and get the entire value of your coins whether you held an account there or not. The bank didn't take a percentage like those cheap bastards at the grocery store. In part, this ad campaign was targeting two-bit whores who, as we all know, are paid primarily in quarters and have limited access to coin wrappers. A slightly lesser-known reason is, due to fluctuations in the copper and zinc markets, the cost of making a penny outstripped the value of a penny. This tipping of the scale led to a widespread effort to get trillions of pennies out of jars and couches and loafers and back into circulation. Thus, the commercials inviting you to come in to see the wonders of the free coin counter.

They don't run those commercials anymore, but, as you can see, they made a pretty strong impression on me. Consequently, I went on a quest to discover whether or not the banks around here had abandoned the practice or just the ad campaign. I poured my four cups of change into a pillowcase, threw it over my shoulder like a Continental soldier, and headed out the door.

To make a boring quest short, there are several bank chains around here that have free coin counting machines, and I found a machine in the first branch I went to. I dumped my pillowcase of metal in to the machine. Hitting the button to start the machine was like flushing a slot machine's toilet. Every few seconds, the counter would hit a foreign coin and make a noise very similar to what hitting the machine with a golf club would sound like. Then, it would spit the offending coin into the reject chute and start spinning again. It was nothing short of mesmerizing, and I found myself scheming about where I might find another stash of coins I could take and dump in the machine again.

$53.00 and a new thrill addiction.

That's change I can believe in.


Title - Artist

Heaven - Bryan Adams
Please Forgive Me - Bryan Adams
I'm Only Sleeping - The Beatles
Hard Times - BlackRoc feat. NOE
I Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Buble
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
Larry - Buffalo Tom
Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Stillness is the Move - Dirty Projectors
Baba Africa - DJ Zebra
Inside and Out - Feist
Ghosting - Freelance Whales
No Reply at All - Genesis
Sweat (A la la la la long) - Inner Circle
Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z and Alicia Keys
Till There Was You - Shirley Jones
Tik Tok - Ke$ha
Ignition (Remix) - R. Kelly
For Every Drop - Sonja Kitchell
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Hip to Be Square - Huey Lewis and the News
Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann
The Sandman and the Brakeman and Me - Monsters of Folk
She Wants to Move - NERD
On the Wings of Love - Jeffrey Osborne
Copying is Not Theft - Nina Paley
Moth's Wings - Passion Pit
Share the Darkness - The Saw Doctors
Hollaback Girl v. Give It to Me - Gwen Stefani and Rick James
Feel It in My Bones - Tiesto with Tegan and Sara
We Walk - The Ting Tings
Evacuate the Dance Floor - Toscada
Nobody's Fault by Mine - Traditional
Sing - Travis
Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood
Parting Glass - Wailin' Jennys
Background Music from Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga (Short Forms) - Jennifer Wolfe
Long May You Run - Neil Young
My Shit's Fucked Up - Warren Zevon